If you have noticed an increased craving for food, weight gain and longer sleep time lately, you may be able to blame the winter.

Thursday may have been the first day of spring but the winter of 2013-2014 could still be having an effect on your body.

Dr. Helen Driver, with the Queen's University department of medicine, said you don't have to have a full-blown case of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) to feel the effects of the long winter.

For many people, it could be a “sub-syndrome”, a lesser version of winter depression.

There seem to be more people going around saying: “It's been a long winter and I'm feeling depressed,” she said.

“We are all experiencing it. It's been a longer wintertime.”

A large part of the problem has to do with lack of light, she explained.

“Humans are very attuned to sunlight.”

An antidote to seasonal depression can be more light.

“We know that bright lights works best,” said Driver. And the best light is in the morning.

“By giving yourself exposure to bright light in the early morning, that's the way you can help to improve your mood.”

The human body seems to be more sensitive to light in the blue spectrum so the bluer light of the morning tends to work better than the redder light approaching sunset.

Natural sunlight is good but you can also use artificial light boxes, she said.

About two per cent of Canadians are diagnosed with SAD but more are simply feeling “the winter blahs” and are doing whatever they can to get rid of it.

“An example would be how many people are rushing off suddenly in March Break,” said Dr. Driver.

Women are more than twice as susceptible to the effects of winter as men, she added. That may be because women seem to be more in touch with their feelings and able to express them more.

And more people in North America seem to suffer in winter, although that may be more to do with reporting habits.

The change to daylight saving time is supposed to brighten the day, giving more light into the evening.

“For me personally I think it makes you feel worse,” said Driver. “I actually find the spring change very hard to deal with.”

Instead of waking up to the nourishing blue light you had started to see more of as the winter wound down, suddenly it is dark again.

She is used to dealing with jet lag but finds the spring time change harder to handle.

“For those of us who are getting up early in the morning for work or whatever it does make a difference. I feel it takes me the week to feel better.”

Driver is from South Africa and feels she and others like her from warmer climates may suffer more during the winter.

“I think those of us who were not exposed to the longer winters, the darker winters, may be more sensitive to it. I don't know of any studies that have looked at that but my guess is we would be. It's one of those things we have to acclimate to,” she said.

“Aside from having to deal with the snow and cold of winter, you are also dealing with the longer night time.”